Devil’s Punching Bag
After a short climb, the descent started off with the expected snow drifts at Vincent Gap, a lot of avalanche debris, but overall the Manzanita Trail was in excellent shape. Then we started climbing the High Desert National Recreation Trail and things got… interesting.
While Matt from Lowelifes, Evan Sollberger, and I were on the opposite side of the mountain range from Condor and Gabrieleño, the 2020 Bobcat fire had burned this area as well—115,000 acres on the doorstep of Los Angeles. Here the steep terrain and already unstable soil had its protective plant layer stripped away in the intense heat—roots and all. In the fire’s wake, torrential rains hit these vulnerable slopes and left us with an eyebrow-raising excuse for a trail bench. But we were committed and very carefully tip-toed our way across the crumbling cliff faces towards Devil’s Punchbowl State Park.
These trails will need a lot of work to bring the bench back into a useable state, stay tuned for more on this effort. It’s an important connection to avoid the complicated wilderness areas of the San Gabriels.
Home of the Tongva, Yuhaaviatam, and Tatviam people.
Manzanita and High Desert NRT on Trailforks.